GDC 2026: Bare Metal for Game Engines and Live Services

The Game Developers Conference brought the gaming industry together in San Francisco, and velia.net was on the ground for a week of conversations on game engine hardware, live-service infrastructure, and the bare metal patterns shaping multiplayer in 2026. Our team spent time with studios, engine providers, and live-ops platform teams shipping at scale.

We attended GDC to share our perspective on hosting production multiplayer and live-service workloads. Our mission was to bring back the patterns that will shape our gaming hardware roadmap and our European peering strategy.

Networking and Innovation

Our specialist spent a week with the global gaming community in San Francisco. We believe that personal exchange with studio engineers is the fastest way to keep our hardware roadmap honest.

• Connected with studio infrastructure leads and live-ops engineering teams.
• Discussed bespoke bare metal configurations for tick-rate critical workloads.
• Explored partnership opportunities with engine providers and anti-cheat platforms.
• Exchanged views on the 2026 roadmap for live-service AI infrastructure.

Key Takeaways from the Event

As we reflect on a week at GDC, four themes stood out:

• Studios are increasingly moving game server workloads from generic cloud to dedicated bare metal.
• Single-thread clock requirements are climbing for the next generation of competitive titles.
• Live-service AI is moving from research demos to production matchmaking and anti-cheat.
• European peering and US East coverage are the top two infrastructure asks from international studios.

Looking ahead from GDC

The booth comes down. The metal stays on. We are continuing the gaming conversation at Gamescom in Köln this August, with the largest gaming-focused delegation of the year.

Our team is ready to bring back the best ideas for your infrastructure!